When I checked my inbox today I found this beautiful email and I am delighted to share this review of my latest book with you.

Sketches: Fables, Allegories, and Parables by tara caribou

Some writers need the input of many others to create. Others appear to create in isolation. When we think of the craft of writing, the latter was more common place. Perhaps letters were exchanged, ideas, but there was none of the immediacy of this modern era. Today writers join writer-workshops, they talk it seems endlessly about what they are writing. I have noticed this can lead to formulaic writing because the true inspirational spark is meted out amongst a plethora of opinions and thus, not owned by the writer themselves. 

tara caribou is more of a classic writer. Her books appear out of nowhere, you never hear that she’s working on a book, it is born without preemption. I admire that because, as with the Brontes and other writers of old, whom I admire for their singular ability to pluck ideas from the ether, and be utterly original, caribou does the same. Her writing is unpredictable because she doesn’t have one style, it appears she writes in the moment of the moment and on a wide variety of subjects. If you know her, you will know this is because she is intensely creative and surrounded by probably the most beautiful landscape on earth. In this, she is an embodiment of where she is in time and space. She is the fable. 

Sketches: Fables, Allegories, and Parables goes beyond caribou’s earlier works in being a collection of short stories, with no one theme and no one connecting factor. I like that. Sometimes we limit the natural scope of ourselves if we stick to a single subject, rather than wander unbound in our minds and then translate that unto paper. 

With rich artwork this little collection is both wise, humorous, and closely observed. If you can describe the core of caribou’s writing it would be her natural ability to observe without anyone knowing that’s what she’s doing. The world around her, including its human subjects, pour into her and then are translated out into these vignettes and snippets of life. Not an easy task for any writer, given our modern impatience and urge for immediacy. But take a journey with this little book and you will open yourself up to one woman’s kaleidoscope. 

Being a fan of clever short stories, given how much it takes to compose an entire idea in a few pages, was the genius behind The Northwind Writing Award. It is my belief a judge of short stories must be able to write them as well as appreciate them. caribou amply proves she’s up to the task. Without ruining the surprises you’ll find in this collection, I’ll point to a few notable examples; “Expiration Date” is barely a page-and-a-half and within that story there is such a deep understanding of human nature and our concept of existing (and dying) that I felt myself wanting to clap. 

In “Dreamworld” there is a blend of scifi and alternate reality that is so well-executed you would be forgiven for thinking caribou wrote in this genre regularly. She is more than able to switch from one style, one subject, one method, and like a juggler balance them all in perfect time. She even has the time to credit other poets’ work (in this case, Braeden Michaels) and write her echo refrain to his poetry. 

My two favorites, although it’s really hard to pick them and it could change on a whim, would be “Unassuming, She,” for its fierce understanding of womanhood in a very pure sense, not ‘woke’ nor politically correct but just truthful and relatable to any woman reading. “The Cycle Of Life,” much for the same reasons, but relatable regardless of gender and exquisitely rendered. Finally; “Through The Window.” My favorite because it is a true love story, and one so unexpected, tender and carefully wrought I felt myself tearing up. How do you accomplish this in just a few pages? You do so when you are a natural story teller, one who has no agenda but the urge to share your lens. For all the writers in this modern world, so many appear affected, manufactured and self-conscious. These stories are raw. They are not attempting to convince you of something or stuck on what ‘should’ be written. The purity of that kind of writing takes me back to novels and short stories of years ago, when social media didn’t exist and we didn’t know what everyone else was doing every moment of every day (or think we did). 

Perhaps caribou’s landscape and her removal from the main throng of modern life, brings her closer to the heart of things. I feel this is true as I read her writing, she’s unincumbered by convention, expectation, or agenda. Her writing is just a woman who knows herself well enough but remains open to learning, pouring those lessons, in the form of fable, allegory, and parable, for us to appreciate. It’s that simple and yet, few of us could achieve it. 

-Candice Louisa Daquin, thefeatheredsleep.com